Here Be Dragons
by Verthril
Summary: Alone in her room on a stormy night, Jubilee wakes to the dreadful sound of claws crawling through the shadows that haunt the midnight hour.


Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.

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Roused from her slumber and blaming it on the patter of rain and sleet that fell against her window, Jubilee rolled over with a grasping hand looking for her alarm clock to check just which hour after midnight it really was. Slapping about her night stand in vain as her eyes adjusted to the dim light shed from her window, she growled and grumbled after the missing timepiece.

"Stupid thing, falling off..." Jubilee muttered.

Leaning over her bed and spotting it down partly beneath the frame, she pulled it up for an inspection of the time to find it dead and dark. Running the cord between her fingers, a chill ran down her back feeling the marks of teeth along its length as well as a slickness that had her throw it down with a gasp.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit." Jubilee hissed with a fretful look about her room.

The shadows of her room took on a new menace, the swaying of distant branches casting looming figures on her walls that her imagination fixed on all too well. Pulling her sheets up pressing her back to the wall, she waited and listened, only the patter of rain against her window and the howling of wind heard aside from her own hammering pulse pounding in her ears.

"Of all the nights for Roguey to be off camping with 'Don't call me Mister' Logan up in the land of flannel and lumberjacks..." Jubilee whispered.

Alone for the first time since coming to the school by the curious route fate had laid out, her roommates had always been the ones to promise her all her nightmares were just bad dreams and the noises she heard were just the house settling. Alone in her room that was suddenly too big, with no one to keep the monsters at bay, her closet became a portal to darkness while the thought of a mad dash for the light had her breath coming as fast as her racing heart.

Jumping at the skitter of claws over the hardwood, she yelped and squealed, pulling her blanket over her head and finding some childish comfort in the security it offered. Diving to her bed and tucking her feet under lest whatever lurked in the shadows clawed and clutched for her toes, she dared peek out from beneath her blanket and listened again for the horrible sound.

"It's just a mouse, it's just a mouse..." Jubilee whispered.

Scanning the room again and remembering that slick feel over the cord of her alarm, the sharp bites along it with frayed copper wiring poking through, a glance to her door had it look a league away across a throw rug with too many places for things to hide and jump out. At fifteen years old she would have thought to have outgrown such childish dreads as monsters in the dark, but life as a mutant had shown her there were things that still went bump in the night.

"It's just probably...a..." Jubilee whispered, a flicker of movement having her voice die.

The shadow slithered across the floor and vanished into the dark portal that was her closet, glowing red eyes staring out after her that had her duck under the safety of her blanket again. Clenching her eyes tight and curling in on herself, her bed became an island and her room a dark ocean filled with dragons.

"It's just..." Jubilee tried again, peeking out from beneath her blanket to stare into her closet and see only darkness, "A mouse..."

The skitter of claws and the feel of her sheets drawn down into that place beneath her bed filled with nightmares had her screaming now and throwing her back to the wall. Feet trampling out of bed and doors thrown open was heard beyond her door, light washing in from below the crack at her threshold. Whimpering and waiting, her own door was thrown open as Jean proved even she could look bed bedraggled at being woken in the middle of the night while a few concerned classmates peeked in.

"What is it Jubilee?" Jean asked, wiping the sleep from her eyes with a yawn and waving the others back to bed.

"There's something...in my room..." Jubilee whispered, the clutching claws and the tugging at her sheets ceased in the dim light of the hall and the comforting presence of another.

At the flick of a light switch she squinted against the sudden brightness, a hazy shadow she assumed was Jean welcoming herself in for a peek around the room. A look in the closet showed only shoes and clothing, a look under Rogue's bed some unwashed laundry and dust. Yet as Jean wandered over to her own bed, Jubilee felt her heart race at the frozen expression her teacher wore.

"Oh my god..." Jean whispered, bending low to peek under the bed.

"What?!" Jubilee squealed, the long seconds stretching on painfully as she waited.

"Where did you two come from?" Jean asked more pleasant, returning from her inspection of that dangerous realm under the bed.

Holding in her arms two squirming ferrets, the fuzzy critters licking their lips and struggling to get free, Jubilee gaped at the sight and felt her cheeks burning in embarrassment. Yet out of the now quiet night another scream came, both looking off out the hall as a door was torn open with feet racing. Looking flustered and fearful for a different reason, Kitty looked in and sported a blush on her cheeks all her own.

"Are these yours?" Jean asked sporting a knowing smile.

"Lockheed! Martin! I am going to kill you two!" Kitty snapped at the unapologetic ferrets.

Gathering up the offered escape artists, Kitty bowed under the murderous look she sported with her brows furrowed in menace. Throwing off her blanket and crawling to the very edge of her now safe bed, Jubilee poked a finger at her classmate.

"Where the he..eck did they come from!?" Jubilee growled with newfound courage.

"They're my pets from back home, the Professor finally said I could bring them." Kitty sniffed.

Pursing her lips and scowling, try as she might she couldn't be mad at the two ferrets, throwing herself down at her bed and wrapping her blanket about her all while giving the cold shoulder to the girl who had just given her the fright of her life by way of her pets. Feeling a gentle hand brush her shoulder and fingers trailing through her hair, she looked up to see Jean smiling down at her.

"Sweet dreams." Jean whispered, guiding Kitty off with her and drawing the door shut to a crack before turning off the light.

At the click of her door being drawn closed with the latch locking, Jubilee rolled about in bed and pressed her back to the wall. Tucking her feet in and putting a pillow over her head, the darkness behind her eyes and the cover over her head was all the safety she needed against the dragons in the dark, dreams coming at last as she fell back asleep safe from the made up monsters her imagination had conjured.

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End file.
